This was my first long roped climb, and I returned a few years later and led it. The summit of Cathedral is certainly one of the most special places on the planet, particularly if you have it to yourself (and your partner....).

After Saturday on the domes, a late breakfast at tioga pass cabins, a less than direct approach, and on the wall at 3. A beautiful day capped by sunset on the summit, descent by headlamp, and dinner at the road. What could be more pleasant?

Started from the trailhead at 4:30 in the morning and were the first on the route having passed many climbers camping at Budd Lake and at least one party camping at the base. I started at the wrong place and ended up on some 5.9 rock, but eventually we found ourselves on route and 2 hours later were standing on the summit. We scrambled down the opposite side and ended up linking up with the Cathedral Lakes Trail and were back at the car well before lunch.

Fun route, one of my first multipitch climbs in Yosemite. We also did Eichorn Pinnacle via the North face (traverse and up?) while we up there. Repeated it sans Eichorn two years later. Indeed worth a yearly repeat

An awesome climb in a nasty weather (strong wind, cold temperature, a little bit of snow and hail). On the approach we saw about 10 people who'd turned around because of the weather. Since turning around is not in Pavel's dictionary we did climb. In spite of cold we enjoyed the climb a lot. We saw only 2 other guys on the route.

Penelope May and I climbed the Original Line on the SE Buttress on September 2nd, 2004. Our British friends Pat and Martin were the only other people on the buttress that day. We followed Peter Croft's "The Good, The Great and The Awesome" topo which in my opinion is the only Guidebook that shows the correct line on the buttress. I know, there are many variations to the original line and most of the topos show them, but in my mind, there is only one line on the SE Buttress and that's the 1945 line by Chuck Wilts and Spencer Austin. Everything else are just variations to avoid crowds and they unfortunately also avoid the best climbing. So if you really want to do this great route, follow the Croft's Guidebook. The route has at least three good and fairly sustained 5.7 pitches of steep face climbing and fair share of enjoyable crack climbing as well. Do it in mid week to avoid the crowds and climb the original route, really the only route there ever was on the SE Buttress.